A coupled effect of nuclear and electronic energy loss on ion irradiation damage in lithium niobate

Abstract

Understanding irradiation effects induced by elastic energy loss to atomic nuclei and inelastic energy loss to electrons in a crystal, as well as the coupled effect between them is a scientific challenge. Damage evolution of LiNbO 3 irradiated by 0.9 and 21 MeV Si ions at 300 K has been studied utilizing Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and channeling technique. During the low-energy ion irradiation process, damage accumulation produced due to elastic collisions is described utilizing a disorder accumulation model. Moreover, low electronic energy loss is shown to induce observable damage that increases with ion fluence. For the same electronic energy loss, velocity of the incident ion could affect the energy and spatial distribution of excited electron, and therefore effectively modify the diameter of the ion track.

Two-stage synergy of electronic energy loss with defects in LiTaO3 under ion irradiation

“…Comparing pre-damaged to pristine LiTaO 3 in Figure 5, we note the large increase in disorder in the case of pre-damaged LiTaO 3 . Unambiguously, this highlights the strong interaction between initial disorder and S e , similar to behavior observed in LiNbO 3 [8,9], but with less sensitivity to amorphization. Although possessing many similar structural properties, LiNbO 3 and LiTaO 3 exhibit significant difference in melting temperatures (T m ), curie temperatures (T c ) and band gaps, which may explain the differences in track formation.…”

“…Inelastic and elastic processes are generally assumed to be independent and noncorrelated. This concept has been disproved by several studies performed in different ceramics, such as LiNbO 3 [8,9], SiC [6,10,11] and SrTiO 3 [7,12]. Ionization effects and the combination of elastic and inelastic processes in Li-based oxide ceramics, specifically LiTaO 3 , have not been established in the MeV energy regime, and little is understood about the coupled electronic and atomic processes.…”

Understanding and simulating the material behavior during multi-particle irradiations

“…Many sequential double ion beam irradiation studies of SiC 1 2 3 , MgO 3 , fluorapatite 4 5 6 and glasses 7 8 have shown that the pre-existing defects induced by the first particle can be annealed by the electronic ionization (LET) due to the second irradiating particle. On the other hand, molecular dynamics and sequential irradiation studies of SrTiO 3 9 10 and LiNbO 3 11 have shown that the pre-existing defects can enhance the ionization induced damage formation, commonly called as synergy. Therefore, depending on the nature of the material, defect recovery as well as synergistic effects can be observed.…”

Latent Tracks in Ion-Irradiated LiTaO3 Crystals: Damage Morphology Characterization and Thermal Spike Analysis

“…In the research field of ion-solid interactions and irradiation effects, systematic study of the response of crystal materials to the deposition of irradiation energy to electrons and atomic nuclei has always attracted considerable attention. As a research focus, understanding and clarifying the relevant physical mechanisms is not only fundamental to predicting and evaluating the damage behaviors of materials in natural and man-made radiation environments [5], but it is also key to the applications of ion and electron beam techniques in atomic-level defect manipulation, material modification, and micro/nanofabrication [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”